The effects of country of origin (coo) on consumers' perceptions of Greek food products in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

There has been a great deal of research conducted on food products that are perceived according to their country of origin. Although this has been a topic that has been researched for many years, the majority of the studies have been completed in western, European and developed countries. This type of study is still rare and limited in Southeastern Europe or the Balkans, where many of the countries have been former republics of the communist regime of Yugoslavia. These countries, currently, have been identified as being less developed, which offers considerable new market opportunities for foreign investments. The aim of this dissertation was to examine the effects of country of origin with regard to Greek, thus also, foreign food products on Macedonian consumers' perceptions and decisions. F.Y.R of Macedonia is a former Yugoslav republic known to have, at present, an emerging market economy and much of its investments come from other European countries, amongst which Greece is one of the top 5 countries which import to this nation. The research is described as an evaluation of factors, such as familiarity and the different demographic aspects, which might affect the perceptions of food products coming from developed European Union countries such as Greece. The research tool that was used was typified as quantitative and it was undertaken in Skopje, the capital of F.Y.R of Macedonia. The research showed that respondents from Skopje consider other European Union products to have to some extent superior advantage over Greek and domestic food products. Greek products were evaluated as being superior in terms of taste, and generally domestic products were evaluated as having the lowest ratings in terms of the four factors. Greek food products were evaluated as being second and to a degree close to domestic products because of the respondents' familiarity and closeness to the country. The familiarity factor was shown to be highly significant since many of the respondents showed that they have been in Greece more than six times and thus are familiar with the food products there. Consequently, they concurred that they are open to buying Greek food products even though they might be more expensive than their domestic counterparts since the majority have agreed that the purchasing of these products will connect them with the memories and experiences that had during their stay in Greece. The demographic factors have been shown to not be very important aspects in shaping the opinion of consumers since most of the respondents shared similar patterns and views about the country of origin towards the food products and about Greece.